Note to Editors: photos available upon request.
LOS ANGELES, CA (March 2002) -- Scott Billups, one of Hollywoodıs top visual effects artists, recently chose Panasonic Broadcastıs AJ-HDC27 VariCam to shoot "Mid-Century," a short feature that he wrote and directed, with Joe Di Gennaro as director of photography.
The AJ-HDC27 VariCam allows digital cinematographers to capture film-style 24-frame high-definition progressive scanned images; in addition, a new option provides a wide range of variable frame rates (4 to 60-fps with the ability to change the frame rate in single-frame increments) to "overcrank" and "undercrank" the camera to achieve fast or slow-motion effects, and provides extended gamma control that permits high definition video to more closely match the dynamic range of film.
Billups, a Los Angeles-based producer/director, is considered one of the industryıs most sought-after digital effects artists; last year, he served as visual effects supervisor for David Lynchıs Academy-Award-nominated "Mulholland Drive." He has produced, directed and written countless feature films, television programs and commercials. His latest book, " Digital Moviemaking," is regarded as a definitive guidebook to Hollywood's digital age.
"Mid-Century," a futuristic, dystopian vision, features the character Bill Gates in the year 2050. A version of Windows 2010, which had allowed computers to upgrade themselves over the Internet, has gone awry, and "Gates" ends up penniless and destitute in southern California. Billups describes "Mid-Century" as depicting a Faustian bargain between the dying Gates and the immortal computers as it chronicles "the inevitable point in human evolution where the machine becomes the master."
"Mid-Century" will be heading to the Marche`du Film at the Cannes Film Festival in May, followed by submissions to the Los Angeles and Sundance Film Festivals. It stars John Glover as Bill Gates, Faye Dunaway as the matriarch of a race of evolved computers, Terry Hanauer as Gatesı girlfriend and Al Mancini as Dr. Warner.
The short feature (approximately 54 minutes) was shot mainly on green screen at Yeah Studios in Burbank, CA, over a four-day period late last year, with a fifth day of shooting for outdoor locations in downtown Los Angeles.
"The methodology of making movies has been largely the same for the past 100 years," said Billups. "With the AJ-HDC27 and the tremendous tools available in computer graphics (CG), that is changing and a project like ŒMid-Centuryı is proof of that.
"Because the HD recording media is dramatically less expensive than film, a director can afford to do multiple takes. You're not as predisp
osed to cut and so you keep rolling and refining the performance until you get everything just right."
Billups added, "For a visual effects movie like this, you simply must have the correct color space to pull perfect mattes, and the Panasonic progressive-scan AJ-HDC27 pulls mattes spectacularly for CG work. The AJ-HDC27 is the best electronic camera Iıve worked with."
DP Di Gennaro, who said his constant concerns in moviemaking are "the quality of the image and the integrity of the archive," was roundly impressed with the AJ-HDC27, his first foray in shooting
progressive-scan HD video. The cinematographer has a diverse background in shooting award-winning short dramas, documentaries and news shows ("Jimmy Breslinıs People," "National Geographic Explorer"), industrial films, commercials, feature films ("The Opponent"), and has served as Camera Operator on many television series ("Even Stevens," "One Life To Live").
"Predominantly, the cameraıs ability to hold color in shadow areas is really remarkable," he said, "but its ergonomics and flexibility are no small matters. I was very comfortable operating the camera. The matte box and follow focus give it much more the feel of a cinematic camera, and I was easily able to utilize a Chapman dolly and Stedman jib arm, both tools usually associated with film shooting. The menus are relatively straightforward, and it was easy to make adjustments in zebra settings and skin detail."
He added, "We shot a 60-page script in under six days, which meant there was a fair amount of improvisation in terms of camera set-ups. We were working on a 75 sq. ft. set with a very small crew. We used every corner of the studio for exteriors, shooting a love scene in a waiting room, rigging an elevator out of cardboard and lights, turning an electrical closet into the villainıs lair. The camera moved with us and never held us back." Di Gennaro said he used the AJ-HDC27ıs variable-frame rate to shoot a fight scene in an alleyway. "I shot the scene, of Mistress Eva (Elana Lyons) fending off two men, at 40-fps for the slo-mo effect, and it was a simple matter of adjusting the menu dial."
The DP said he shot largely as he does for film with one key difference. "Shooting film, you expose for shadows and can be rather reckless with regard to highlights. Shooting video, however, you need to be mindful of how you expose for highlights--you need to record the highlight details, as you canıt recover Œclippedı highlights in post. Otherwise, my operating style was familiar. I used a dimmer system to control the light levels the color temperature, as I do with film. I picked a particular shooting stop, between 4 - 5.6--to give me enough depth of field for good green screen extraction, and had the zebras set at 90. IRE Once I had those benchmarks, using a -3dB switch, I was getting an effective exposure index of 500. I was able to confirm readable light levels with a light meter, exactly the discipline I use on a film shoot."
During the shoot, the output of the AJ-HDC27 Varicam was patched via the camera's Serial Digital Interface (SDI) to a Panasonic AJ-HD3700 multi-format D-5 HD VTR, providing an uncompressed recording for compositing. Incidentally, that same data stream was immediately downconverted to NTSC and edited on Final Cut Pro to produce rough cut scenes viewable before the actors were wrapped from the set. The Panasonic TH-50PHD3U 50" HD plasma was used to monitor the shoot.
The 720p video shot with the AJ-HDC27 was digitalized for editing on Pinnacleıs CineWave nonlinear editing system, with off-line editing done in Panasonicıs 50 Mbps DVCPRO50 format. Billups said. "The short looks big and looks great, despite having been shot on a very low budget, a budget that was significantly addressed by shooting HD video."
The AJ-HDC27 VariCam provides long recording times and ease of use, while offering 24 frame-per-second capture of exquisite film-like images, increased control over gamma and all frame rates from four to 60-fps. For more information on Panasonicıs HD Cinema lineup, visit www.panasonic.com/hdworld Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. is a leading supplier of broadcast, professional video and presentation products and systems. Panasonic Broadcast is a unit company of Matsushita Electric Corporation of America, the principal North America subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE: MC), one of the world's leading producers of electronic and electric products for consumer, business and industrial use. For more information on Panasonic Broadcast products, access the companyıs web site at www.panasonic.com/broadcast. - 30 -